05/04-05   -   Pressemeddelelse

Brocade and Sun Take Midrange Storage Networking to the Next Level

Sun Microsystems Qualifies the Brocade SilkWorm 4100 to Deliver High Performance SANs and On-Demand Scalability

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Brocade) (Nasdaq: BRCD), the world’s leading provider of infrastructure solutions for Storage Area Networks (SANs), today announced that the Brocade SilkWorm 4100 4 Gigabit per second (Gbit/sec) SAN switch is now available as part of the Sun Microsystems Inc. StorEdge™ portfolio of storage solutions, a move that further signifies both companies´ goal of providing increased scalability and high-performance storage networks for companies of all sizes.

“Sun has an unwavering commitment to addressing the unique data management problems of enterprises, and this extension of our alliance with Brocade enables Sun to provide mid-size enterprises and SAN islands with the highest level of performance and expandability," said James Whitemore, Vice President of Marketing for Network Storage, Sun Microsystems. “This switch is a perfect complement to Sun’s StorEdge 6000-series of scalable arrays - offering customers incremental growth and investment protection in a package that helps them solve complex storage problems today and tomorrow."

Certified for operation with the Sun StorEdge family of products, the SilkWorm 4100 switch provides the highest level of performance on the market, coupled with the ability for a customer to start with the number of ports they need, and then add ports as their data management needs grow, to ensure investment protection. The Silkworm 4100 switch delivers double the data transfer rate of competitive, 2 Gbit/sec switches available today, along with complete backward compatibility with the world’s largest installed base of SANs. The advanced-technology switch also supports “Ports-on-Demand" scalability that allows customers to move from 16-port to 24-port and 32-port configurations.




The SilkWorm 4100 is an ideal solution for branch offices and departments in enterprises implementing a local or core-to-edge SAN architecture, and as a core for midsized organizations deploying smaller SANs. It provides enterprise-class features in a midrange switch including redundant and hot-swappable power supplies and cooling fans; hot-swappable SFP media; hot code loading and activation; and extensive enterprise-level security, fabric management, and ease-of-use features.

“By offering the first available 4G SAN switch, Sun Microsystems helps data center managers and storage administrators protect their infrastructure investment by increasing current availability and performance, while at the same time laying a next-generation foundation for managing data throughout its lifecycle," said Tom Buiocchi, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Brocade. "Sun is a valued partner and we are pleased to work with them in bringing best of class storage solutions to market."

About Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.
Brocade offers the industry’s leading intelligent platform for networking storage. The world’s leading systems, applications, and storage vendors have selected Brocade to provide a networking foundation for their SAN solutions. The Brocade SilkWorm family of fabric switches and software is designed to optimize data availability and storage and server resources in the enterprise. Using Brocade solutions, companies can simplify SAN implementation, reduce the total cost of ownership of data storage environments, and improve network and application efficiency.